Railroad Commissioner Matthews leaves agency

West Texas oil and gas operators will soon see changes at the Railroad Commission, the state agency that oversees the state's oil and gas operations.

Railroad Commissioner Charles Matthews, who was elected to the commission in 1994 after serving as mayor of Garland, left office the first of the month to become chancellor of the Texas State University System. Gov. Rick Perry has said he will name former State Rep. Elizabeth Ames Jones of San Antonio to succeed Matthews, subject to Senate confirmation.

"I left with a tear in my eye," said Matthews by phone from his new office, where he will oversee the system's nine institutions: Sul Ross State University and Sul Ross State University Rio Grande, Angelo State University, Texas State University San Marcos, Sam Houston State University, Lamar University and Technological Institute and Lamar Colleges Orange and Port Arthur. The nine institutions currently serve 68,000 students, employ more than 13,125 people and the system has an annual operating budget of approximately $700 million.

"We're sorry to lose Charles Matthews from the Railroad Commission and sincerely congratulate him on his new position," said Morris Burns, executive vice president of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association. "He's been a great friend of the industry since he was elected in 1994 and he has been a stabilizing force on the Railroad Commission."

Matthews, said Midland independent Bob Landreth, "was an excellent commissioner who wasn't driven by 'Where am I going next on the political ladder?' When we get a new Railroad Commissioner, we (producers) are always concerned."

Landreth is optimistic about Jones, noting that she is the daughter of a former chairman of the Independent Petroleum Association of America. As a member of the Texas House - she was re-elected but declined to take office when Perry chose her to join the Railroad Commission - Jones served on the House Energy Resources Committee and was one of three appointees from Texas to the Southern States Energy Board.

Reflecting on his 10 years in office, Matthews said the first thing he is proudest of - "there were a bunch of things, but I'm proudest about the school piping safety act I got passed, requiring, for the first time, school districts to inspect their inside piping. We'd been having schools evacuated and districts calling the Railroad Commission about the smell of gas. We'd required daycare centers and nursing homes to regularly inspect their piping."

He estimated that hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren were protected because of that rule.

Reorganizing the agency and putting in place the gas services division, where he prompted the commission to focus on natural gas issues, also stands out, Matthews said.

So does his support of the commission's district offices, he said.

"I tried to be a champion of the district offices. I was a proponent of keeping as much responsibility as possible in the district offices and as little as possible in Austin."

The three trade missions he led to Mexico and the relationships he formed with Mexican regulators was important, he said because it helped Texas companies expand their markets into Mexico.

He played, he believes, some small role in helping the media understand the industry, how "a small group provides all the hydrocarbons for the rest of the country and what great things they do."

As he prepared to leave office, Matthews said the words of praise he, a regulator, was receiving from the people he regulated - that he was informed and prepared - made him feel good.